Turmoil at the MEdia Dragon, Barn(e)s and Bookstores

Hope Hicks’ secret diary: Publishers are reportedly scrambling for her tell-all Mercury News. “If you would care to verify the incident, pray do so. [Produces diary.] I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” 
–Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

The value of not understanding. For Grace Paley, “write what you know” was a guarantee of dullness. Art comes from exploring the unknown - Unknown  

DAVID SOLWAY: The Media and Joe McCarthy. “The name and the man serve as reminders that muck-raking leftists and elite conservatives are not always that different, that the Fourth Estate cannot be trusted, that the Fifth Estate is almost entirely a gutter institution, and that the only antidote to the intellectual and emotional subversion practiced by the FNM is perpetual skepticism and diligent study.”

The gig economy is endangering wages, economists say

Demo track recorded by a 17-year-old Amy Winehouse

Confidence doesn't help women get ahead.
Fortune favours the bold, but only if you're a man, according to a new survey. Researcher Leonora Risse says efforts to reduce bias at the organisational level might be more successful than individual women working on their confidence.

Vanity Fair – Hive: “The Newsroom Feels Embarrassed”: Backfires and Explosions at The New York Times as a Possible Future Chief Re-Invents the Paper’s Opinion Pages – “A yoga-pants refusenik, a climate-science skeptic, and a tech writer with a neo-Nazi pal, among other offenders, have put James Bennet in the crosshairs.”

“Leading the country’s most closely observed Opinion page is an unfathomably complex job, largely because of two interrelated factors: the outrage culture of the Internet in general, and Donald Trump in particular. For the Times, this conundrum often reduces to the question of how hospitable the op-eds should be to illiberal and sometimes unscientific positions—where do facts end and values begin? For many Times readers—and many scientists, for that matter—questioning the science of global warming is not different in kind than, say, not ruling out the possibility that the world may be flat. And many Times readers believe, with some justification, that only one of the political parties is truly a full citizen of the reality-based community. What is the responsibility to provide equal time in such circumstances? These are not at all simple lines to draw.

Minister wants answers over Powerhouse Museum fundraiser allegations

Barnes & Noble lays off hundreds of experienced employees, may not be long for this world

Via LLRX – Barnes & Noble lays off hundreds of experienced employees, may not be long for this world. Chris Meadows explains the rapid descent of the only remaining national bookstore chain and the impending impact on the bookselling landscape, including on the stores’ employees and customers.

 JESSE BALL’S NEW NOVEL ‘CENSUS’ SURVEYS LIFE'S ESSENCE — THE BOOK CANVASSES KINDNESS, CRUELTY, LONELINESS, AND POLITICS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR REPRESENTATION

STORY IDEA: What books are “lost” the most frequently from your local library? Most readers are returning Cold River. Here are some of the top titles of missing books from the past five years at the Boston Public Library (via Laura Crimaldi of the Boston Globe):

1.     Diary of a Wimpy Kid (other series books are #6 #9 #12 #17 #18)

2.     Catcher in the Rye

3.     The Great Gatsby

4.     A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage To Survive

5.     The Autobiography of Malcolm X

      7. Fifty Shades of Gray

      8. The Alchemist

     11. The Fault in Our Stars

     15. The Book Thief

     19. The Hunger Games

     20. The Cat in the Hat.